President Muhammadu Buhari acted unconstitutionally in appointing Amina Bala Zakari as acting chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission.
A legal practitioner, Liborous Oshoma said the relevant section of the constitution only empowers the President to name a Chairman after consulting with the council of State, who will then be confirmed by the Senate.
Section 154 subsection 1 and 3 laid the foundation for the process for the appointment of some major functionaries of state which included the INEC Chairman.
Mr. Oshoma argued that the appointment of an acting chairman for the electoral commission is alien to the constitution of the federal republic. He added that as at the name of Amina Zakari was announced by the office of the Head of Service, the tenure of Muhammed Ahmed Wali who took over from Prof. Jega still subsists.
The legal practitioner wondered why the President had to wait till the day the former Chairman had handed over to a National Commissioner to hold the office until a substantive chairman is named before returning to reality that the office is vacant.
Prof. Attahiru Jega had soon after the elections in April notified that he will not be interested in keeping the office beyond the 30th of June.
The legal practitioner was a guest of a Silverbird Television breakfast progrmme, Today on STV. Most callers into the live programme agreed with the concerns raised by Mr. Oshoma and introduced the sectional slant of most appointments made so far. Though the legal practitioner played down the ethnic concerns but the callers insisted that the appointment of only Northerners so far is worrisome.
It will be recalled that the PDP had condemned the appointment of Mrs. Zakari as the acting chairman of INEC alleging that she is a close ally of an APC stalwart, Governor Nasir El-Rufai.
In rounding up his argument on the programme, Mr. Oshoma wished President Buhari could become more pro-active and careful to eliminate all avoidable flaws that will mar his credibility.
